The state Senate on Thursday voted to ask on the November ballot
whether recreational use of marijuana should be legalized and taxed in
Illinois.

The ballot question would be only advisory, so even if voters approve,
lawmakers still would have to act.

Sponsoring Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, said it is important to
poll the public because some lawmakers are already working to legalize
recreational marijuana use for people over 21. He noted that in most
states that allow recreational use, it was done by voters expressing
support in the ballot box.

The General Assembly is considering more than two dozen bills on
marijuana -- or cannabis, as the substance is called when used as a
medicine.

For marijuana enthusiasts, full legalization for recreational purposes
is at the top of the wish list. Bills in both the House and the Senate
would put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to let
voters decide whether to replace prohibition with a system of
regulated sales and taxation.

There isn't a better reader of the tea lives in Annapolis than Senate
President Thomas V. Mike Miller. He's been saying for a couple of
years now that legalization of recreational marijuana in Maryland --
something that seemed like a far-out idea when former Del. Heather
Mizeur made it a central plank of her 2014 gubernatorial campaign --
is inevitable. We're inclined to believe him. Public attitudes on the
drug have shifted rapidly in recent years, and it is now legal for
recreational use in nine states and (sort of) Washington, D.C. The
most recent polls on the issue report that about 60 percent of
Maryland voters support legalization. At least four of the seven
Democrats running to unseat Gov. Larry Hogan have voiced support for
some form of it. But legalization still may not happen as fast as
proponents might like.

Illinois voters could get a say whether the state should legalize
recreational marijuana if lawmakers decide to put the question on
November ballots.

A state Senate committee advanced the idea on Wednesday, but a ballot
question would be non-binding. That means it would work like a
statewide public opinion poll and wouldn't legalize marijuana even if
a majority of voters approve. Lawmakers who want to legalize the drug
could get a political boost, though, if voters favor it.

State Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, said putting the matter to a
vote would "bring the public into the debate" and "give them an
opportunity to register their opinion" as lawmakers debate the idea in
Springfield.

Political pressure on the state Cannabis Control Commission
intensified Thursday, as Attorney General Maura Healey and 78 state
legislators joined Governor Charlie Baker in pressing the independent
agency to roll out a more limited recreational marijuana industry this
summer.

In letters sent at the close of a public comment period on the
commission's draft rules for pot companies, Healey and the lawmakers
urged cannabis regulators to delay their provisional plans to license
marijuana cafes, delivery services that don't also operate a physical
storefront, and "mixed-use" businesses such as art galleries and
theaters that want to sell cannabis on the side.

Berkeley may be the first city to declare itself a cannabis sanctuary
city. A customer shops at marijuana dispensary MedMen in West
Hollywood in January. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously to declare the city a
sanctuary for recreational marijuana, a move that may be the first of
its kind.

The resolution, adopted Tuesday, prohibits Berkeley's agencies and
employees from using city resources to assist in enforcing federal
marijuana laws or providing information on legal cannabis activities.

In a letter to the Cannabis Control Commission dated Monday , the
governor's office warned the independent agency that it had reached
beyond the core mandate of the state's marijuana legalization law by
proposing the licensure of businesses not seen in other states'
recreational markets: sit-and-get-high cafes, pot delivery services
not tied to dispensaries, and even movie theaters that want to offer
patrons cannabis-laced snacks.

A public hearing on Whitman's proposed ban of recreational marijuana
sales will be held before the Planning Board on Feb. 12.

To take effect, the ban requires approval at a special town election,
which has been set for March 17, and approval at a special Town
Meeting. A date for the Town Meeting has not yet been set, according
to Town Administrator Frank Lynam.

The town voted in favor of the 2016 statewide ballot question
legalizing recreational marijuana, but Lynam said these votes test the
will of residents on whether they want non-medical retail sales within
the town.

For Jack in the Box Inc., the warm smell of marijuana is rising in the
air.

As California prepares for legal recreational pot on Jan. 1, the
fast-food chain is partnering with a digital media company backed by
rapper Snoop Dogg on a new "munchie" meal aimed at cannabis
enthusiasts. While marijuana's connection to fast food is
well-established, Jack in the Box will become the first national chain
to explicitly embrace the drug.

The "Merry Munchie Meal," which will be available at three California
locations for a week in January for $4.20, features two tacos, french
fries, onion rings, five mini churros, three chicken strips and a
small drink. The price isn't random: The number 420 is used as a code
by potheads.

At the two malls in town you can buy key chains and Christmas
ornaments shaped like marijuana leaves. Along a downtown shopping
corridor, paintings of cannabis plants grace storefront windows.

Even Kmart stocks its shelves with T-shirts and mugs decorated with
the signature green leaf and "Colorado est. 2012" -- the year the
state legalized recreational marijuana.

But that is the one pot product you can't buy in Colorado Springs.

When Coloradans voted overwhelmingly to make non-medical marijuana
legal, they left it up to cities whether to allow sales. Colorado
Springs, home to five military bases and known for its conservative
politics and religious values, blocked recreational cannabis sales.
Now some in town want to change that, saying the state's second
largest city is missing out on sales taxes that are enriching cities
across Colorado.

COLUMBUS - One day after Ohio announced its choices for larger growing
sites that would fuel a fledgling medical marijuana industry, a legal
challenge was announced that could throw a wrench into the works.

Ironically, such a lawsuit would be filed by some of the chief players
behind 2015's failed ResponsibleOhio ballot initiative that would have
legalized marijuana for both medical and recreational use.

"Whether we end up with a license or we don't end up with a license,
that's not what this is about..." said Jimmy Gould, chairman and chief
executive of CannAscend Ohio. "I care that this process is broken. I
care that there should have been better oversight over this process,
and I care where this ends up....

Proponents of legalized marijuana in New Jersey are lining up in the
aftermath of Phil Murphy's election as governor, anticipating
no-questions-asked pot sales to adults by late next year with an ally
in the governor's office.

Murphy has named the head of a marijuana trade group as his chief of
staff, and a new association for marijuana retailers has formed. The
governor-elect vowed during his campaign to legalize the drug, and the
growing industry is counting on him to quickly make good on the pledge.

LAS VEGAS -- For Hilary Dulany, long roots in Michigan and the
prospect of expanding her Oregon marijuana business are luring her
back to the Great Lakes State.

For Nancy Whiteman, the prospect of taking her business national has
her looking for partners in Michigan.

For the two women and many other entrepreneurs attending the MJ Biz
Conference in Las Vegas last week -- the pre-eminent conference where
18,500 professionals looking to get into the cannabis industry
gathered -- the common thread was Michigan's soon-to-explode marijuana
business.

Stateline, a project of the Pew Charitable Trusts, provides daily
reporting and analysis on trends in state policy.

When Californians voted to legalize marijuana last year, they also
voted to let people petition courts to reduce or hide convictions for
past marijuana crimes. State residents can now petition courts to
change some felonies to misdemeanors, change some misdemeanors to
infractions, and wipe away convictions for possessing or growing small
amounts of the drug.

"We call it reparative justice: repairing the harms caused by the war
on drugs," says Eunisses Hernandez of the Drug Policy Alliance, a
nonprofit advocacy group that helped write the California ballot initiative.

Demonized for decades, marijuana remains controversial even on the
brink of its statewide legalization - and even in pot-friendly
strongholds such as San Francisco. The city is one of many still
debating local regulations that will either embrace an overdue retreat
from the drug war or effectively prolong the failed policy at the
neighborhood level.

For vacillating municipal officials, some context is in order. This
week alone, New Jersey and Virginia voters resoundingly elected
gubernatorial candidates promising to liberalize marijuana policy;
Constellation Brands, a Fortune 500 seller of many popular wine and
beer brands, was reported to have bought a nearly $200 million stake
in a Canadian cannabis company; and California's attorney general
approved signature-gathering for a ballot measure to legalize
psilocybin mushrooms.

A citizens committee in Colton has launched an initiative to regulate
and tax local cannabis cultivation, manufacturing and distribution in
order to generate millions of dollars in revenue for law enforcement,
schools and public safety programs.

The Committee for Safer Neighborhoods and Schools recently filed its
proposed marijuana ordinance with the city and will soon begin
gathering signatures for placement on the 2018 ballot.

Meanwhile, the Colton City Council awaits a drafted ordinance of
potential regulations recommended by a committee of city leaders and
other representatives.

Nine years after Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved an initiative
that permits doctors to prescribe marijuana for therapeutic purposes,
state and local lawmakers are still struggling to design a regulatory
scheme that balances the interests of patients, providers and residents.

Earlier this year, Michigan legislators finally adopted a new regime
that establishes distinct licensing criteria for growing, processing,
testing, transporting and distributing the drug, which is still
forbidden by federal law, and dividing the tax revenues generated by
those activities between the state and local governments.

People eager to start buying recreational marijuana from shops in San
Francisco when sales become legal throughout the state in January are
going to have to wait a little longer.

The city won't issue permits to sell recreational marijuana until it
passes new laws to regulate the industry and creates an equity program
to help low-income entrepreneurs, people of color, and former drug
offenders break into the market.

According to Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, who introduced an ordinance with
proposed regulations at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, city
officials still have no idea what that program will look like or how
it will operate.

The medical marijuana business is expected to explode next year when
the state begins to hand out licenses, and rules released Thursday by
the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs could prove to be
even more profitable for some budding marijuana entrepreneurs.

LARA said in an advisory that one person could apply for three of the
licenses -- grower, processor and dispensary -- and locate all of
those businesses in one facility.

Read more:

"It's something that we've had a lot of inquiries about," said David
Harns, spokesman for LARA, as people looking to get involved in the
medical pot business get ready for Dec. 15, when applications for
licenses will become available from the state.

Just a couple of years ago, discussions of how to deal with marijuana
in the Inland Empire were limited. Now, several Inland jurisdictions
are considering opening up to marijuana businesses, an overdue
development given the failure of prohibition and the anticipated
availability of commercial sales of marijuana in 2018.

Late last month, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted to
move forward with plans to draft regulations for marijuana businesses
in the county's unincorporated areas. The move came after an ad-hoc
committee of Supervisors Kevin Jeffries and Chuck Washington concluded
that regulating and taxing marijuana "would enable the County to
better manage an already growing and uncontrolled industry," as
opposed to simply banning marijuana.

Thousands of people are expected to flock to Boston Common this
weekend for the 28th annual Boston Freedom Rally - the first time the
marijuana festival has been held since voters approved a ballot
referendum last November legalizing the drug for recreational use.

As of Saturday morning, about 7,400 people indicated on Facebook that
they plan to go to the rally, organized by the Massachusetts Cannabis
Reform Coalition.

The festival, which began Friday, is scheduled to be held from noon to
8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday according to its Facebook page.

Two initiatives that would amend Detroit's medical marijuana ordinance
to allow dispensaries to open near liquor stores, and grow facilities
to operate legally, will appear on the November ballot, after a Wayne
County circuit judge's ruling earlier this week.

If approved by voters in November, the changes could have a
wide-reaching impact on the city's budding marijuana industry.

Detroit corporation counsel Melvin Butch Hollowell told the Free Press
that the city respects the right of voters to decide but concerns have
been raised about the measures, particularly the one that would impact
zoning regulations.

BOSTON -- Marijuana legalization opponents will outnumber supporters
four to one on the new commission that will spearhead the state's
efforts to get a legal marijuana industry up and running by next
summer and then regulate the newly legal market.

Attorney General Maura Healey on Friday appointed Britte McBride, a
lawyer with experience working for the attorney general's office, the
state Senate and the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security,
to the newly minted Cannabis Control Commission, and joined Gov.
Charlie Baker and Treasurer Deborah Goldberg in agreeing on two picks
to round out the five-person panel.

When it comes to buying pot for pleasure, Fresno won't be on the
recreational map

Retail marijuana dispensaries and other businesses related to
recreational use of marijuana will be barred from setting up shop in
Fresno after the City Council voted 4-3 Thursday to prohibit such
establishments.

Proposition 64, approved by California voters in November 2016,
legalized the possession and recreational use of marijuana. It also
legalized the sale of marijuana for recreational use starting Jan. 1,
2018 -- but gave cities and counties the authority to regulate or
prohibit commercial cannabis operations in their jurisdictions.

The Inland Empire has its first licensed medical marijuana dispensary,
with Green America now open for business in Perris.

"This is the first time that patients will be able to purchase their
products from a permitted dispensary," said Mark Douglas, chief
executive of the nonprofit that runs Green America. "This is a
historic day not just for Green America Inc., but for the city of
Perris and all of the Inland Empire."

The move comes after more than 77 percent of Perris voters in November
approved Measure K, an initiative put on the ballot by the Perris City
Council to remove the city's ban on marijuana businesses. The measure
permits dispensaries in industrial and commercial zones, with strict
rules on record keeping, buffers from schools and more.

To weed or not to weed? That is the question for Michigan's
communities.

As the state board that will regulate Michigan's new medical marijuana
law begins to craft the rules that will govern the multimillion dollar
industry, the state's cities, townships and villages must decide
whether they want in or out.

As they are making their decisions, local officials are being
bombarded with phone calls from people who want to gain a foothold in
the medical marijuana business and are promising untold riches for the
communities that let them in.

An arm of the White House's anti-drug office has asked Massachusetts
and several other states where medical marijuana is legal to turn over
information about their registered patients, triggering a debate over
privacy rights and whether state officials should cooperate with a
federal administration that appears hostile to the drug.

Dale Quigley, deputy coordinator of the National Marijuana Initiative,
or NMI, has asked Massachusetts health officials for demographic data
on the age, gender, and medical condition of the state's approximately
40,000 registered medical marijuana patients. Quigley is a former
police officer in Colorado with a long history of speaking out against
legalization.

The Democrat-controlled Massachusetts Legislature sent an overhaul of
the voter-passed marijuana legalization law to Governor Charlie
Baker's desk Thursday - but not before a top Republican lit into the
legislation.

The Senate enacted the measure on a 32-6 vote. On Wednesday, the House
voted 136-11 to move the bill forward.

Baker is expected to sign the measure, which would raise cannabis
taxes from what the ballot question envisioned, merge oversight of
recreational and medical marijuana, and change how cities and towns
can ban pot shops.

The legislation proposed in Massachusetts wouldn't change the basic
marijuana rights of adults that the ballot question put in place.

The Massachusetts Legislature is advancing an overhaul of the
voter-passed marijuana legalization law Wednesday, when both chambers
are expected to accept a House-Senate compromise bill in the afternoon.

A final Senate vote, which would send the bill to the governor, is
scheduled for Thursday.

The legislation would change the legalization law passed by 1.8
million voters in November.

California's county fairs -- those wholesome showcases of agricultural
bounty -- could become places to score some pot.

Gov. Jerry Brown last week signed a bill that details how to carry out
the November 2016 ballot measure that legalizes recreational marijuana
as of January 2018. Tucked deep in the text is an option for county
fairs to allow sampling and sales for people 21 and older in
designated spots.

The Stanislaus County Fair has had "minor discussions" among the board
and Chief Executive Officer Matt Cranford about the issue, spokeswoman
Adrenna Alkhas said by email.

Oviedo City Council members this week agreed to let the city's
moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries expire Aug. 5, making it
likely that Oviedo will become the first Seminole County municipality
to allow such businesses.

Council members also directed city staffers Monday to draft an
ordinance that will treat medical marijuana dispensaries under the
same zoning regulations as pharmacies.

Pharmacies in Oviedo are allowed to operate only in certain office and
commercial zoning districts, which are mostly located along major
thoroughfares. Council members are expected to vote on a new ordinance
in the coming weeks to allow pharmacies and medical marijuana
dispensaries to operate only in certain commercial zoning districts,
but not in zoning districts for offices.

Massachusetts companies cannot fire employees who have a prescription
for medical marijuana simply because they use the drug, the state's
highest court ruled Monday, rejecting arguments from employers that
they could summarily enforce strict no-drug policies against such patients.

Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants said a California
sales and marketing firm discriminated against an employee in its
Foxborough office who uses marijuana to treat Crohn's disease when it
fired her for flunking a drug test without first trying to reach an
accommodation with her.

Representative Ronald Mariano, a Quincy Democrat and the majority
leader, spoke about the revisions to the marijuana law on Monday at
the State House.

The Massachusetts Legislature is expected to approve a broad overhaul
of the voter-approved marijuana legalization law this week after House
and Senate negotiators agreed on a bill Monday that would hike
marijuana taxes and change how communities can ban local pot shops.

But the compromise immediately raised the specter of a serious legal
challenge, and the bill drew a rebuke from the top lobbyist for cities
and towns who said, should it pass, most municipalities would have
trouble implementing the law.

Tax rates and questions of local control have dominated the
conversation surrounding the Legislature's rewrite of the
voter-approved marijuana law. But for former firefighter Sean Berte,
who spent eight months in federal prison for cultivating marijuana,
the bill spells out something else entirely: a second chance.

Berte initially swore off the drug that he says cost him his job, his
life savings, and his freedom. But now, he sees an opportunity in the
green-leafed plant - this time, on the right side of the law.

An initiative to amend Detroit's medical marijuana ordinance to allow
dispensaries to operate near liquor stores, child-care centers and
parks could appear on the November ballot, after a group behind the
effort submitted thousands of signatures backing the measure.

Citizens for Sensible Cannabis spokesman Jonathan Barlow confirmed his
group submitted petitions late last month seeking to amend Chapter 24
of the city's code.

Elections Director Daniel Baxter said the group met the threshold of
required signatures and his department has since turned the initiative
over to the Detroit City Council, which is expected to consider it
Tuesday.

Nevada officials have declared a state of emergency over marijuana:
There's not enough of it.

Since recreational pot became legal two weeks ago, retail dispensaries
have struggled to keep their shelves stocked and say they will soon
run out if nothing is done to fix a broken supply chain.

"We didn't know the demand would be this intense," Al Fasano,
cofounder of Las Vegas ReLeaf, said Tuesday. "All of a sudden you have
like a thousand people at the door.aE&We have to tell people we're
limited in our products."

The Coalinga City Council voted 4-1 on Thursday to immediately allow
commercial marijuana cultivation within city limits.

Councilman Ron Lander cast the lone no vote. The ordinances required a
four-fifths majority to pass.

The council also approved the sale of the city's dormant prison,
Claremont Custody Center, to Ocean Grown Extracts for $4.1 million.
Ocean Grown will transform the prison into a medical cannabis oil
extraction plant.

This sale will immediately bring Coalinga's general fund into the
black. City Manager Marissa Trejo said Coalinga was $3.3 million to
$3.8 million in debt.

At least 103 cities and towns - nearly one-third of all Massachusetts
communities - have placed outright bans or other restrictions on
marijuana businesses since voters legalized the drug for recreational
use in November, according to a Globe analysis.

And another 47 municipalities are actively considering restrictions,
the review found, as local elected officials express unease about the
state's venture into legalized recreational marijuana.

Most of the restrictions are temporary, intended to allow local
officials time to consider where marijuana shops should be allowed to
operate in their communities - if at all.

RENO, Nev. (AP) - Most of Nevada's recreational marijuana retailers
are optimistic an emergency regulation that state officials are
expected to approve will help keep them from running out of pot
supplies, but some are "running on fumes," an industry official said
Tuesday.

The State Tax Commission is scheduled to vote Thursday on an emergency
measure Gov. Brian Sandoval endorsed late last week in an effort to
allow the state to issue pot distribution licenses currently banned by
a court order.

Could Michigan be next to legalize marijuana? The stars are aligning,
say fans of legal cannabis.

After a flubbed effort last year, supporters of marijuana legalization
in Michigan can celebrate reaching a milestone at a posh $250-a-plate
fund-raiser Thursday night.

Their new petition drive has gathered 100,000 signatures in just six
weeks, putting the campaign well ahead of schedule and giving leaders
reason to believe that this year's petition drive will manage to put
the legalization question on Michigan ballots, spokesman Josh Hovey
said.

TALLAHASSEE -- Arguing that Florida legislators violated voters'
intent when they prohibited smoking for the medical use of marijuana,
the author of the state's medical marijuana amendment sued the state
on Thursday to throw out the implementing law.

John Morgan, the Orlando trial lawyer who spearheaded and financed the
successful campaign to make medical access to cannabis a
constitutional right, filed the lawsuit in Leon County Circuit Court
Thursday morning, asking the court to declare the law implementing the
2016 constitutional amendment unenforceable.

Independence Day is a celebration of freedom. But on this July Fourth,
for the first time in more than a century, our freedoms in
Massachusetts include the ability to legally buy, possess, and use
marijuana.

These privileges took effect in December, after voters approved a
ballot question on recreational pot use. And that measure remains the
law of the land, despite state legislators' ongoing debate over a
rewrite of the rules.

But it's worth remembering that this freedom is heavily qualified. So,
after consulting with law enforcement experts and studying guidance
issued by state officials, here are some recreational marijuana do's
and don'ts.

They arrived -- by the hundreds, on foot, in party buses and Uber
rides -- at a strip mall marijuana dispensary, and the merchandise
started flying off the shelf: Snake Eyes OG, double chocolate chunk
brownie bites.

"What we're experiencing right here and now is history," Ross Goodman,
co-owner of Las Vegas ReLeaf, said early Saturday as he stood behind a
glass counter at the pot shop watching staff shuffle patrons in and
out. "This is the future and we're a part of ending
prohibition."

The fate of marijuana legalization, enshrined in law by about 1.8
million Massachusetts voters, is now in the hands of a half-dozen
lawmakers meeting in secret.

Those legislators' first action on Monday was to kick out members of
the news media, close the door, and begin their deliberations to
reconcile fundamentally different Senate and House rewrites of the
ballot question that legalized adult recreational marijuana's use and
sale.

"We're going to ask the press to leave," said Senator Patricia D.
Jehlen, the Senate's point person on pot policy.

BOSTON -- After a week of sharp divisions and heated rhetoric over the
future of the state's recreational marijuana law, it's now up to a
conference committee of six legislators to try and sort everything
out.

On one hand, there's a House bill that infuriated pro-marijuana
activists by proposing a major overhaul of the voter-approved law. On
the other, a more restrained Senate bill won praise from the groups
behind the November ballot question.

Democratic Rep. Mark Cusack, the House bill's lead author, suggested
before the votes that the two chambers were in about 80 percent
agreement on their respective approaches.

Criminal charges filed against petition circulators accused of
falsifying signatures on petitions for the marijuana-legalization
ballot issue in 2015 show that people must be careful, Delaware County
Prosecutor Carol O'Brien said.

"It serves as a cautionary note that people circulating petitions need
to be very careful and follow the law when they are gathering
signatures," O'Brien said. "People need to be careful to only sign
their own names."

O'Brien commented Friday as four cases continued to move through
Delaware County Common Pleas Court.